Mum and Dad, I want a dolls house.

When I was young and in Kindergarten one of my most prized possessions was a dolls house. I remember getting it for Christmas. It had 4 rooms and was filled with little pieces of furniture and a couple of dolls. A man and a woman.

I remember spending a lot of time looking up the girl dolls skirt.

I was talking to a friend yesterday about my dolls house and it brought back a few memories. The thing that sits in my mind the most is that my parents never enforced “boy” or “girl” toys on me. I asked for a dolls house, and to their credit my parents bought me one. It didn’t stop at a dolls house either. Tea sets, and pots and pans featured often in my play times.

Now that I am older I still fondly remember that dolls house and surprisingly whenever it’s come up in conversation people are really interested by it and just a little impressed. Mostly they are impressed by my parents willingness to indulge me in my selection of playthings (they still do hehe) without judgement.

I think back to those times and wonder what it was that fascinated me about the dolls house. I didn’t own any other dolls, just the two that came with the house. I didn’t spend my Saturday mornings giving haircuts to Barbie or touring the wineries in her Dream Car but I think that it was the beginning of my love of building models. I was fascinated by the tiny furniture, people and the scenes I could create. Later it became train sets with little trees and buildings.

All through my teenage years and into my early twenties I loved building models. Planes, ships, boats, toy soldiers and later on more complex dioramas. I still have many of the models I built. My love of modelling evolved in to a love of miniature war games.

I don’t play with toy soldiers or paint models any more, but for a significant part of my life they brought me a lot of happiness. I firmly believe my interest in photographing interesting buildings and scenes of people is probably rooted somewhere in that little dolls house.

I can’t say if life would have been any different if Mum and Dad had insisted that I have Trucks instead, but I am thankful for the nurturing of my little request way back then and for the influence it may have had on my world today.